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SUMMARY
Yes, buying off-plan in Muscat is genuinely safer now, but the biggest improvement is protection against badly controlled transactions, not protection against delays, weak execution or overpaying.
Oman’s off-plan framework is no longer built around one safeguard. Escrow, project licensing, advertising controls, preliminary registration and a broader real-estate law now sit around the same transaction, which makes it harder for a loosely structured project to look legitimate.
The practical shift is that buyers can verify more before paying. A serious project should now connect cleanly across the developer licence, project approval, land or usufruct documents, SPA seller, preliminary registration and the project escrow account.
Escrow is the strongest improvement, but it has a narrow job. It can stop buyer money from being casually diverted elsewhere; it cannot fill a construction-budget hole if costs rise, sales slow or the developer simply runs out of capital.
That makes developer funding more important than the bank logo beside the project. A development backed by debt-free land, real equity, committed construction finance and visible progress is safer than one that technically meets the rules but still depends heavily on future buyer instalments.
Foreign buyers in Integrated Tourism Complexes still need to read the legal structure carefully. Several major protections carry across, but the dedicated off-plan framework does not necessarily apply to every ITC in exactly the same way, so the SPA and development agreement matter more than many sales pitches admit.
Visible construction has become one of the best ways to reduce risk in Muscat. Buyers no longer have to choose only between a first-day launch and a completed property; large projects such as Yiti, AIDA and Sultan Haitham City increasingly allow entry after meaningful work is already on site.
Institutional backing lowers destination risk, not unit-level risk. Government involvement in Sultan Haitham City or OMRAN participation in AIDA and Yiti makes the wider masterplan harder to abandon, but the private developer named in the SPA still owes the buyer the actual home.
The market risk is now almost as important as the legal risk. Oman’s latest headline residential price growth is being driven heavily by land, while apartment appreciation is much weaker and Muscat continues to absorb a large pipeline of new homes.
That changes the launch-price calculation. A small discount is not enough compensation for years of construction and masterplan risk when buyers can often wait for visible progress and still buy off-plan later.
The lower-risk Muscat off-plan purchase today is therefore fairly easy to describe: verifiable approvals, the correct escrow account, preliminary registration, a strong SPA, meaningful construction, credible funding and a price that still makes sense against completed alternatives.
So the answer is yes, with one important caveat: Muscat has become much better at protecting the transaction, but regulation cannot rescue a badly financed project or make an overpriced apartment a good investment.
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Is buying off-plan in Muscat genuinely safer now?
Yes, buying off-plan in Muscat is materially safer today than it was a few years ago, although the protection still varies much more by project than sales brochures suggest.
The biggest improvement is the accumulation of several protections around the same transaction. Oman introduced project escrow accounts in 2018 and detailed off-plan rules in 2019. Royal Decree 79/2025 then brought development licensing, off-plan sales, preliminary registration, escrow, common-property management, brokerage and penalties into a broader real estate law that is now in force.
There are also fresh signs that these rules are being used operationally. Gov.om currently lists a dedicated off-plan project-licensing process that requires the title deed or usufruct contract, proposed sale contract, consultant agreement, implementation plan and land valuation before the project licence is issued. Opening the escrow account is a formal step in that process. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has also started publishing escrow-account details for real estate development projects.
So we are no longer judging Muscat off-plan property mainly on whether the developer has a good reputation. Buyers can increasingly check whether the project sits inside the regulatory system, whether its money should flow through escrow and whether their future unit can be officially recorded before completion.
The remaining danger has shifted. Loosely controlled collection of buyer money is harder than before. Delays, cost overruns, weak developers, overpricing and badly timed masterplans can still hurt buyers badly.
| Risk | A few years ago | Today | Has the risk disappeared? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer money used elsewhere | Serious concern | Project escrow gives much stronger protection | No |
| Selling without proper project structure | Harder for buyers to check | Licensing and advertising rules are clearer | No |
| Buyer has only a private contract | Greater concern | Preliminary registration strengthens the buyer’s legal position | No |
| Developer runs short of money | Major risk | Better controls around funding and withdrawals | No |
| Construction delay | Major risk | More regulatory oversight and remedies | No |
| Paying too much | Major risk | Essentially unchanged | No |
Did Oman actually change the off-plan rules, or just rename old protections?
Oman has genuinely strengthened its off-plan system, but the change happened in stages rather than through one sudden new law.
Escrow protection dates back to Royal Decree 30/2018. Ministerial Decision 72/2019 then set out much of the practical framework around developer licensing, project accounts, construction-linked payments, contracts and project progress.
Those rules already went quite far. Before advertising an off-plan development, the developer had to meet a funding threshold equivalent to at least 20% of project cost, with qualifying land value or completed construction potentially counting toward it. Purchaser instalments were supposed to follow construction progress, and buyers were entitled to periodic project updates.
Royal Decree 79/2025 widened the structure considerably. The law entered into force after a 180-day transition and replaced several older pieces of real estate legislation, including the previous standalone escrow decree. It created one framework covering developers, off-plan projects, preliminary registration, escrow, common property and enforcement.
Oman then adopted a new Real Estate Registry Law through Royal Decree 56/2026. One of its important changes was aligning the normal property registry with the Preliminary Real Estate Registry used for properties sold before construction is finished.
The most recent government services show that this framework is now more than legislation sitting in the Official Gazette. Gov.om currently has active procedures for off-plan project licensing, escrow-account banks, approved contractors, consultants, valuers and auditors through the Tatwir platform.
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Does escrow really protect your money if a Muscat developer fails?
Yes, escrow now removes a large part of the risk that a Muscat developer takes money collected for one development and spends it somewhere else.
An off-plan project covered by the system needs a dedicated project account at an approved bank. If a development is split into phases, the framework can require money to be separated by phase as well. Purchaser payments and relevant project financing then flow through the controlled account.
Withdrawals are tied to the project rather than the developer having unrestricted access to the cash. Consultants, banks and the Ministry sit inside that control chain, and the Ministry can intervene where progress information or withdrawal requests appear questionable.
The protection becomes especially useful if the developer gets into financial trouble. Under the current real estate law, project escrow funds receive statutory protection from unrelated creditors. A developer with debts elsewhere cannot simply treat buyer deposits as ordinary corporate cash available to everyone chasing repayment.
Escrow still cannot rescue bad project economics. Suppose OMR 40 million has been collected and properly spent on a development that eventually requires OMR 50 million to finish because costs rose or sales dried up. The escrow system may have worked exactly as intended while the project still faces a OMR 10 million funding hole.
| What escrow helps with | How much protection it gives | What remains exposed |
|---|---|---|
| Developer diverting buyer deposits | Strong | Fraud outside the controlled account still needs enforcement |
| Unrelated creditors taking project cash | Stronger under the new law | Project-specific creditors can still matter |
| Developer withdrawing money too early | Better controlled | Certification quality still matters |
| Project running out of funding | Limited | Escrow cannot create missing capital |
| Construction delay | Limited | Money can be protected while construction is still late |
| Bad investment returns | Almost none | Rent and resale values remain market risks |
Can a Muscat developer still launch a project with almost none of its own money?
It is much harder today for a Muscat developer to launch an off-plan scheme funded almost entirely by the first buyers.
The existing operational framework requires a substantial funding base. Gov.om’s current off-plan project-licensing page states that the beneficiary must have a warranty account with an amount equivalent to 20% of the total project value or the land value, alongside a real estate development licence.
The older implementing rules also allowed elements such as developer-owned land or construction already completed to count toward the project-cost threshold.
That distinction is worth understanding. OMR 5 million in cash is more useful during a construction crunch than land that an appraiser values at OMR 5 million. Both strengthen the project, but only one can immediately pay the contractor.
Bank participation can also be misunderstood. An approved bank managing the escrow account is providing an important control function. The bank’s logo is reassuring; it is not a guarantee that the project will finish.
A project that begins with valuable debt-free land, substantial developer equity, committed construction finance and early physical progress is plainly safer than one leaning heavily on future sales instalments.
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Can you actually check whether a Muscat off-plan project is legitimate before paying?
Yes, checking a Muscat off-plan project is becoming much easier, and a salesperson who cannot show the basic approvals should now make buyers suspicious.
Gov.om currently describes a formal project-licensing process for developments sold off-plan. Required material includes the title deed or usufruct contract, initial approval, maps, proposed off-plan sale contract, consultant agreement, project implementation plan and land valuation.
Advertising is regulated separately. A real estate developer needs permission to advertise local property, and Gov.om says an unfinished project must qualify under the off-plan sales and warranty-account framework before that advertising permit is available.
Tatwir adds another layer. The platform is used to register participants such as banks, engineering consultants, contractors, valuers and auditors working on escrow-controlled developments. The Ministry also provides approved-project information and has recently published escrow-account details for real estate development projects.
Before sending a reservation deposit, the buyer should be able to connect the same project across the developer licence, project approval, legal seller named in the SPA, land or usufruct documents and project escrow account. Those records should tell one consistent story.
| Check | What should match | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Licensed legal entity | Brand name differs from SPA seller with no explanation |
| Project | Specific approved development | Only the wider masterplan is mentioned |
| Land | Title or valid usufruct | Unclear site control |
| Escrow | Exact project and approved bank | Payment requested to another account |
| SPA | Same unit, developer and project | Reservation form contains different entities |
| Advertising | Approved project marketing | Heavy public marketing before documentation is available |
What protects a Muscat off-plan buyer if the project is delayed or stalls?
Preliminary registration and the newer stalled-project rules give Muscat off-plan buyers a much stronger legal position before the property is completed.
Royal Decree 79/2025 created a Preliminary Real Estate Registry for off-plan units and transactions involving them. Royal Decree 56/2026 subsequently updated Oman’s wider registration system so the two frameworks work together.
Traditional off-plan ownership has an awkward period between signing the contract and receiving the final title deed. The buyer has paid for a specific apartment, although the completed property that will eventually be registered has not yet been created.
The preliminary register gives that interest an official record. Once the development reaches the necessary stage, the completed property moves into the normal registry.
If construction later stalls, projects covered by the relevant off-plan provisions of Royal Decree 79/2025 also trigger a clearer regulatory process. The project consultant has reporting obligations, while the Ministry can examine why construction stopped, seek a route to completion or move the matter toward court intervention where necessary.
The Ministry also has powers around the escrow account. Questionable completion certificates can be challenged, another consultant can be appointed and withdrawals can be stopped while the situation is reviewed.
The stage at which the project stalls will still decide a lot. A development that is 75% built, has valuable land and needs short-term replacement financing gives regulators and lenders much more to work with than a highly leveraged project that stops shortly after excavation.
The new law also reaches beyond handover. Developers face long-term responsibilities for serious structural and infrastructure defects, while the escrow framework keeps part of sale proceeds back after completion to support defect rectification. Under the earlier implementing regime, that retention was 5% of unit value for one year; the current law preserves the retention concept while leaving details to the implementing rules.
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Do foreign buyers get the same off-plan protection in Muscat’s ITC projects?
Foreign buyers get several of Oman’s strongest protections in Integrated Tourism Complexes, although the legal package is not identical to an ordinary off-plan development.
Many Muscat projects marketed internationally are ITCs or sit inside special integrated developments, so that distinction is not theoretical.
Royal Decree 79/2025 excludes Integrated Tourism Complexes from parts of the general real estate law while expressly applying several important areas to them. Developer licensing, the Preliminary Real Estate Registry, project escrow and parts of the common-property regime remain relevant.
However, the dedicated off-plan chapter does not automatically carry across in exactly the same way to every ITC. The development agreement and the individual SPA can therefore matter more than foreign buyers sometimes realise.
We would pay particular attention to this in projects such as Al Mouj Muscat, Muscat Bay, AIDA and Yiti-area developments where the foreign-ownership proposition is central to the sale.
The legal status of the land also matters. Foreign ownership in Oman remains tied to authorised locations and project types. The recent expansion of investment and residency opportunities has widened the market, although it has not made ordinary property across every Muscat neighbourhood freely available to foreign purchasers.
| Protection | Standard covered project | ITC project | What a foreign buyer should verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer licensing | Applies | Applies | Developer entity and licence |
| Project escrow | Applies | Applies | Exact escrow bank/account |
| Preliminary registration | Applies | Applies | Unit can be registered |
| General off-plan chapter | Applies | Can differ | SPA and development agreement |
| Foreign ownership | Depends on property | Usually a core feature | Exact legal designation |
| Common-property framework | Applies | Can depend partly on project arrangements | Service-charge and management rules |
Are Muscat’s new off-plan rules fully working already?
The new framework is working, but we still do not have enough history to treat every part of it as battle-tested.
Royal Decree 79/2025 required the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning to issue a new executive regulation within one year of the law entering into force. Until the replacement rules are issued, compatible existing regulations continue to operate.
That transition is visible on government websites today. Gov.om’s recently updated off-plan licensing services still use mechanisms inherited from the earlier escrow regime, including the 20% project-funding condition, while the broader statutory framework comes from the newer law.
This is legal continuity rather than regulatory paralysis. Developers can obtain licences, banks can register for project escrow, specialist firms can qualify through Tatwir and the Ministry is publishing project-account information.
Several questions will become clearer only after the new regime has dealt with difficult projects. We have not yet seen years of public cases showing how quickly regulators can restructure a major stalled development, how disputes over preliminary registrations play out or how aggressively the newer penalties are applied.
That is where Muscat still differs from markets such as Dubai, which has accumulated much more experience with cancelled projects, restructurings, transferred developments and several property cycles.
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Which Muscat off-plan projects look less risky today?
The lower-risk end of Muscat’s off-plan market is increasingly concentrated in projects where strong institutions and visible construction already overlap.
The Sustainable City–Yiti is one useful case. Infrastructure had reached 96% completion in an earlier detailed construction update, while villas and the Sustainable District were around one-third built at that stage. More recently, the project reported more than 25 million working hours without a lost-time injury and said construction was advancing simultaneously across residential, hospitality, school, marina, public-realm and other components. Recent construction updates continue to show activity across the site.
Sultan Haitham City has a different risk profile because the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning controls the wider masterplan while private developers build individual neighbourhoods. The scale of government infrastructure spending makes abandonment of the broader city increasingly difficult to imagine. Buyers still need to judge each private developer separately.
A recent example is the Ministry’s OMR 320 million-plus agreement with Saudi-listed Retal Urban Development for an integrated community of more than 2,000 homes using the off-plan model. The size and institutional background strengthen the project compared with a small standalone launch, although they do not guarantee individual delivery dates.
AIDA also benefits from the combination of Dar Global and OMRAN, with major construction packages already awarded. Established communities such as Al Mouj add another advantage: buyers can inspect completed neighbourhoods, service-charge history, existing amenities and actual resale demand before judging a new phase.
| Example | What currently lowers the risk | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| The Sustainable City–Yiti | Extensive infrastructure and ongoing vertical construction | Exact unit handover and remaining community components |
| Sultan Haitham City | Government-led masterplan and major infrastructure commitments | Quality of each private developer |
| Retal project in Sultan Haitham City | Large OMR 320m+ development agreement and experienced regional developer | Execution of its first Muscat programme |
| AIDA | Dar Global–OMRAN partnership and awarded works | Multi-year luxury masterplan timing |
| Al Mouj Muscat | Long delivery history and functioning community | Price paid for each new release |
Does visible construction matter more than the developer’s name?
For a Muscat off-plan buyer today, visible construction can tell us more about completion risk than another famous logo on the brochure.
A strong developer name certainly helps. Companies with substantial balance sheets, repeat projects and government relationships have more capacity to solve problems when construction gets difficult.
But the risk changes dramatically once a buyer can see infrastructure, foundations, structural work and contractors operating across the site.
The Sustainable City–Yiti shows the difference well. An early buyer was making a bet on plans, approvals and the development team. A buyer looking at the project now can also assess roads, residential construction, hospitality components, public areas and the continued presence of contractors.
Sultan Haitham City is going through the same transition. Multiple infrastructure packages, residential contracts, schools, public facilities and landscaping tenders are turning a huge masterplan into separate pieces that can be tracked.
There is a price for waiting. Early buyers may get better unit selection, longer payment plans and lower launch prices. In Muscat, giving up part of that early-bird advantage can be sensible when several months of construction remove a large amount of uncertainty.
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Could Muscat’s building boom make off-plan property riskier even while the rules improve?
Yes, Muscat’s legal protection is improving at the same time that heavy residential supply can make some off-plan investments harder to justify.
Cavendish Maxwell estimated that Oman added roughly 38,400 homes during 2024, lifting residential stock by about 3.6%. Around 15,500 of the units added in Muscat were apartments, according to comments from the firm’s Oman head reported by the Oman Observer.
That is a huge amount of new apartment supply for a city the size of Muscat.
More is coming. Cavendish Maxwell has projected approximately 62,800 additional residential units across Oman by 2030. Sultan Haitham City alone is designed eventually for around 100,000 residents, while Yiti, AIDA and other large developments are adding further stock around the capital.
The latest official price data make the distinction even clearer. NCSI reported residential property prices up 17.6% year on year in the first quarter of 2026. Residential land rose 21%, villas 9% and apartments only 4.4%. Muscat residential land surged 43.6%.
So the spectacular Muscat number everyone can quote today belongs to land. It cannot simply be applied to an apartment bought off-plan.
Transaction figures also deserve a closer look. The value of Oman’s property sale contracts rose 16% in 2025 to OMR 1.27 billion even though the number of sales contracts slipped 1.6%. Early 2026 started more strongly, with January sales-contract value up 37.5% and the number of transactions up only 0.7%.
Taken together, these figures show a property market where money is flowing and land has become much more expensive, while apartment appreciation remains far less dramatic and supply is still expanding.
| Market measure | Latest useful reading | What we learn |
|---|---|---|
| Oman residential prices | +17.6% YoY | Housing values are rising overall |
| Residential land | +21% | Land is driving much of the increase |
| Muscat residential land | +43.6% | Muscat land has surged |
| Villas | +9% | Finished villas are rising more moderately |
| Apartments | +4.4% | Apartment appreciation is far below the land headline |
| Muscat apartments added in 2024 | ~15,500 | Buyers face substantial new supply |
| 2025 sales-contract value | +16% | More money changed hands |
| 2025 sales-contract count | -1.6% | Transaction volume did not rise with value |
Does a government-backed Muscat masterplan make an off-plan unit safe?
Government involvement lowers the risk around the wider location, although the private developer selling the unit still matters enormously.
Sultan Haitham City is the clearest example. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning is driving a masterplan designed for roughly 100,000 residents, with major roads, public facilities, schools, parks and infrastructure being tendered and built across several neighbourhoods.
For a buyer, this makes the probability that the entire destination quietly disappears much lower.
Individual developments inside the city still have different counterparties. Retal has its project. Other private developers control other neighbourhoods and units. The Ministry building a road through the city does not automatically make the Ministry responsible for a buyer’s apartment handover.
OMRAN participation deserves similar treatment. OMRAN’s involvement in developments such as AIDA and Yiti creates long-term institutional commitment to the destination and gives buyers more confidence about the underlying land and tourism strategy.
The SPA still decides who owes the buyer the apartment.
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Is buying a Muscat off-plan property at launch still worth the extra risk?
Buying at launch can still pay off in Muscat, but these days buyers have fewer reasons to accept maximum construction risk just to get an instalment plan.
The attraction is easy to understand. Developers can spread a large part of the price over construction, allowing buyers to reserve an asset without funding the full purchase immediately. Early releases can also offer the best views, layouts and occasionally the lowest price within a project.
That advantage becomes valuable if subsequent releases genuinely rise in price.
Yet a payment plan should never be mistaken for a discount. A developer can charge more for the apartment precisely because the buyer is paying gradually.
Muscat now gives buyers another option: wait.
Large projects such as Yiti, AIDA and the first districts of Sultan Haitham City have enough construction activity that buyers can enter after meaningful work has happened while the development is still technically off-plan. In some cases, that means sacrificing part of the launch discount in exchange for much better evidence.
If an apartment is 5% cheaper at launch but the buyer takes several years of construction, financing and masterplan risk, the discount may be too small. A 15% or 20% genuine price advantage is a more serious argument, although we would still compare it with completed alternatives.
So, is buying off-plan in Muscat safer now?
Yes. Buying off-plan in Muscat is substantially safer now, and the improvement is strong enough to change how we would judge a serious project.
Escrow protection is established. Developer and project licensing are more structured. Advertising is controlled. Preliminary registration gives buyers an official pre-completion interest. The new Real Estate Registry Law reinforces that system. Tatwir brings banks, consultants, contractors, valuers and auditors into a more visible regulatory process. The Ministry is currently publishing escrow information, while the biggest new Muscat masterplans are producing enough physical construction for buyers to verify progress themselves.
We would still draw a hard line between two types of Muscat off-plan purchase.
A unit with a verifiable project licence, correct escrow account, preliminary registration, a strong SPA, meaningful construction already underway and a developer with enough capital or institutional backing now looks reasonably well protected by regional off-plan standards.
A first-day launch sold mostly through renders, with little physical work and a developer whose finances are hard to assess, remains speculative. The fact that the project passes the regulatory minimum would not be enough for us.
There is also a second risk that regulation cannot solve. Muscat is adding a lot of housing. Apartments appreciated only 4.4% in the latest official annual data while Muscat residential land jumped 43.6%, and tens of thousands of new residential units are moving through Oman’s pipeline. Paying an inflated launch price can therefore cost an investor money even when the building arrives exactly as promised.
Our final judgment is clear: the claim is mostly true. Muscat off-plan property is genuinely safer today, especially for buyers who verify the regulatory trail and wait until construction is visible. The remaining danger has moved away from basic protection of buyer funds and increasingly toward developer execution, project timing and paying too much for new supply.
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OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests whether buying off-plan property in Muscat is genuinely safer now by separating the risks that regulation can reduce from the risks it cannot. We assessed legal protection, regulatory implementation, buyer-fund safeguards, preliminary registration, developer funding, construction progress, foreign-buyer rules, project structure and current market conditions.
For the legal framework, we read the current law alongside the rules it replaced or absorbed. Royal Decree 79/2025 is the main statutory anchor, while Royal Decree 30/2018 and Ministerial Decision 72/2019 establish the earlier escrow and operational framework that still matters during the transition to the newer regime. Royal Decree 56/2026 is used to assess how preliminary off-plan registration now connects with the wider real estate registry.
We also checked whether the law is operating in practice rather than treating legislation alone as proof of protection. Current Gov.om procedures for off-plan project licensing, advertising and Tatwir registration were used to verify the documentation, escrow and professional-participant requirements that a real project should now pass through. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning’s published project escrow-account information was used as another practical check.
For foreign buyers and Integrated Tourism Complexes, we kept the general off-plan framework separate from the ITC ownership framework. That distinction is important because several core protections apply in major internationally marketed projects, while the exact legal package can still depend on the project designation, development agreement and SPA.
Project risk was assessed using evidence that is difficult to fake or exaggerate: awarded construction packages, physical progress, infrastructure completion, government or institutional participation, delivery history and the identity of the legal developer. We gave less weight to launch messaging, brand names on their own and payment-plan marketing.
For market risk, we separated land, villa and apartment performance rather than using Oman’s headline residential index as a proxy for every property type. NCSI’s Q1 2026 Real Estate Price Index, full-year 2025 transaction data and January 2026 transaction data were used to compare price growth with actual transaction activity. Residential-supply estimates from Cavendish Maxwell, as reported by Oman Observer, were used to test whether stronger regulation is arriving at the same time as heavier new supply.
The project examples are not presented as guarantees or rankings. The Sustainable City–Yiti, Sultan Haitham City, Retal’s Sultan Haitham City development, AIDA and Al Mouj are used because they illustrate different combinations of visible construction, institutional backing, developer track record and masterplan maturity.
Key sources used for this analysis include: Royal Decree 79/2025, Royal Decree 56/2026, Royal Decree 30/2018, Ministerial Decision 72/2019, Gov.om’s off-plan project-licensing procedure, Gov.om’s property-advertising procedure, Gov.om’s Tatwir registration procedure for escrow-account banks and financing institutions, the Ministry’s published escrow-account details, NCSI’s Q1 2026 Real Estate Price Index, Oman News Agency/NCSI on 2025 real estate transactions, Oman News Agency/NCSI on January 2026 transactions, the official Sultan Haitham City portal, the Ministry’s Retal development announcement, The Sustainable City–Yiti construction update, The Sustainable City–Yiti July 2026 construction update, DarGlobal’s AIDA construction-contract announcement, OMRAN’s AIDA project page, Al Mouj Muscat’s 20-year project update, and Oman Observer on Cavendish Maxwell’s residential-supply estimates.
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